Revolving doors here....

This place is closely resembling Clapham Junction at the moment. In the nicest possible way!

Jean, Margaret and I popped in to town this morning on a "we have to find some books for book club" quest. We belong to 2 separate book clubs, and it is both Jean's and my turn to select books for our clubs this month, so we had a wonderful time choosing what we liked. (And combining our purchases to get the best 3 for the price of 2 deals we could find!) It is great to have an excuse to buy books. Any excuse.

After coffee and hot cross buns, we wandered about and had a great time trying new perfumes, drooling over Radley handbags, and hunting through charity shops. We go for the total shopping experience! Charity shops to designer bags. Shopping (or window shopping), is so much fun with a friend or 2 along!

Jean came in for a coffee when we got home, and just as she was leaving, Louise arrived, so Jean came back in again. More coffee. We had just been chatting for about half an hour, and in walked Jackie with her 3 babes. Jean and Louise left a little while later, and I was just making the 45th cup of coffee, when Margaret arrived to put in some plants in my front garden flower bed. Margaret has single-handedly cleared the debris from my flower bed, and hacked back everything with vigour. She is such a star, and then she actually called me to ask if I minded if she put in some plants to fill the gaps. Mind???? That flower bed is forever to be known as "Margaret's Patch". She knew the debris was driving me crazy, especially as I cannot do it myself at the moment. So she just did it.

So I made yet more coffee. See what I mean about Clapham Junction??? I would not change it for the world. I love friends popping in. I love having time to chat and yes, make coffee. It doesn't matter what the house looks like. They come anyway. And they know they are always welcome.

Edited to add: It did not stop there... Julia barrelled through the door in the evening too. I must remember to buy more coffee.....

The holidays are flying by at supersonic speed at the moment. I really wish they were longer. I have absolutely no desire to go back to work. At all. Given the soaring price of petrol (and absolutely everything else here at the moment) it may soon be impractical to travel across town to get to work.

The world food shortage is also making headlines. We have seen people in different countries on TV demonstrating about the astronomic price rise of even staple foods. The crop failures in various parts of the world, and the conversion of so much acreage to bio-fuel crop production has meant that the world could be about to have a very real problem. And it could be one which will affect each of us. We stopped at a fair trade Whole Food store on the way home, and it is surprising how many "Sorry - crop failure has meant this item is out of stock" signs there were on the shelves. If ever I doubted that there was a real problem, that visit dispelled the thought.

The petrol price is 108.9p a litre at the moment. That means that every single thing we buy is more expensive, as manufacturers pass on the price hike. And they are also having to pay increased gas and electricity prices, as we all are, and that is also passed on. And so the spiral of costs upwards grows, fueling inflation, as the economy slows down. The housing market is in decline......

I am depressing myself. And I went and bought BOOKS??? Maybe I should have bought a large packet of rice instead.